The first chapters in the narrative of Islam in the Malay-Indonesian world are dotted with some significant question marks. Nevertheless, it is commonly agreed that it was India that played a particularly important role as the conduit for diffusing the Islamic belief and ideas to the Malay-Indonesian world. It was only in the eighteenth century that the Middle East began to play a prominent role in the narrative of Islam in the Malay-Indonesian world. One of the most visible aspects of the growing interaction between the two regions was remarkable transmission and dissemination of Islamic knowledge and ideas from the Middle East to the Malay-Indonesian world. It was done through a multidimensional complex of cross-regional and global channels, that has exposed millions of people in the Malay-Indonesian world to a broad spectrum of Islamic streams of thought and has imprinted itself on varied aspects related to the contemporary Malay-Indonesian world including culture, society, politics, international relations, and intellectual discourse. The talk, given by Dr. Giora Eliraz, will focus mainly on Indonesia as it is a home to the largest Muslim community in the world, aims to share the audience with insights suggested by this topic, including insights that have relevance in present times.